AMIS इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर को वितरण

Distribution of AMIS Infrastructure(KISAN SIM, Smart Mobile Phone, Rain-gauge and Thermometers) to Farmers group of Banke District by Honorable Secretary of Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), Nepal

On 19th October 2016 (Kartik 3, 2073), one day event on distribution of Agriculture Management Information System(AMIS) infrastructure was organized in District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), Banke. The entire programme was hosted by DADO-Banke. Around 90 participants representing government agencies, non-governmental organizations, farmers group and private sectors, media group participated in the programme. The programme was exceptionally strong; it included presence of Honorable Secretary from Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), National Project Director from PPCR:BRCH-AMIS, Regional Director from Regional Agriculture Directorate Office, representatives from District Administration Office (DAO)-Banke, Local Development Officer(LDO) from District Development Committee (DDC)-Banke, Senior Agriculture Development Officer(SADO)-Banke, Chief from District Livestock Service Office(DLSO)-Banke, Head of Regional Agriculture Training Centre District Forest Officer(DFO)-Banke, and members of PPCR:AMIS Project Management Unit.

Honorable Secretary Mr. Uday Chandra Thakur as a Chief Guest inaugurated the programme and set the tone by highlighting the importance of climate information service and its direct relevance with Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). He further stressed that, “Recently endorsed Agriculture Development Strategy” (ADS) 2015-2035 has prioritized use of ICT in agriculture and ongoing AMIS project is also adopting this policy document for the project”. He explained that climate change has played an acute role in keeping smallholders in the underbelly of value chains. Farmers can no longer rely on timeworn coping strategies when all of their familiar benchmarks for making agricultural decisions, the timing of rains for planting and pasture, the probability of drought, the duration of dry intervals that spare crops from disease are increasingly less reliable. Therefore, in the context of globalizing agriculture where the need for information becomes most vivid for weather forecast, climate smart agricultural tools/technologies, agro-advisory services, ICT can be way forward to address those challenges. Mr. Thakur shared his pleasure regarding pleasant coincidence to inaugurate two important events from Banke District namely Agro-Advisory Bulletin and HamroKrishi mobile application in the past and AMIS-Infrastructure distribution at present. Lastly in his speech he encouraged DADO and DLSO Banke to help farmers, farmers group and youths to leverage their skill to improve the lives of smallholder farmers by disseminating agro-advisories and climate information services under early warning system (EWS) in more accessible medium as timely access to this information could increasefood production and help them overcome the challenges of extreme climate variabilities.

Mr. ShibNandan Prasad Shah, National Project Director of PPCR:BRCH-AMIS shared the objectives, outcomes and outputs, project deliverables, major activities of the project. Furthermore, he spoke on the AMIS project milestones: "The project aims to bring in and integrate experience on climate smart interventions from within the country and abroad as a means of scaling-up activities in the future”.

After the presentation of Mr. Shah, there was formal distribution of AMIS infrastructure by Honorable Secretary Mr. Uday Chandra Thakur which included KISAN SIM, Smart Mobile Phone, Rain-gauge and thermometers. Representative of farmer’s group Dhruba Bahadur Oli expressed his pleasure as smart mobile phone and KISAN SIM would definitely help to enhance their knowledge on agriculture through SMS service and “HamroKrishi” mobile application in days ahead.

Special Guest, Mr. Jagat Bahadur Basent (Assistant Chief District Officer) from Banke district, Local Development Officer Mr. Jib Lal Bhusal appreciated the project and programme as a good initiation of ICT in agricultural sector. Mr. Jib Lal Bhusal also expressed that farmers should properly utilize the distributed materials among their groups so that right message at right time are received and expected outcomes of the project are achieved. Regional Director Mr. Shib Narayan Chaudary added as the happiest momentfor western development region as they received a precious occasion for making face to face consultation between Honorable Secretary and farmers which added the value to the event and increased enthusiasm to government organizations and famers. While nearing to the end of session, Senior Agriculture Development Officer Mr. Krishna Bahadur Basnet from DADO Banke gave closing remarks. In his remarks he articulated that activities of AMIS would definitely strengthen the knowledge of farmers on climate change and use of climate information services. However, he motivated farmers for efficient utilization of received materials. In addition, Mr. Basnet urged PMU to provide knowledge products also in printed form keeping in mind the situation of farmers and concerned stakeholders at grass root level instead of providing only in electronic media. Lastly he expressed great pleasure considering Banke district as one of the luckiest district receiving opportunity to become a pioneer for historical events of PPCR:AMIS in present and past.